Missions

Missions can be done every 18 hours from last completion. The zone persists for 18 hours once you enter it. You may re-enter the zone if you still have the mission in your journal, but once you complete a mission you cannot re-enter the zone once you exit it.

Zone Layout

Great Hall is the center of keep. The other rooms all branch off from here.

Brew House is the southeast (SE) room. Connected to Storeroom by a back hallway, which is the best way to enter this room.

Storeroom is the northeast (NE) room. Connected to Brew House by a back hallway.

Barracks is the southwest (SW) room. Connected to Armory by a back hallway, which is the best way to enter this room.

Armory is the northwest (NW) room. Connected to Barracks by a back hallway.

Trophy Room is the western (W) room.

Weapons Room is the eastern (E) room.

War Room is the southern (S) room.

Storeroom Lift to Upper Loft - Northeastern corner at -687, 122, 292

Armory Lift to Upper Loft - Northwestern corner at -438, 122, 290

The Armory, Brew House and Storeroom all have wanderers that can walk right up to the very entryway of those rooms. Check around the corner to see if it's safe before entering any of the three above rooms.

Rewards

Your rewards from these missions can be reduced by two things: being spotted and killing an "unauthorized" giant. It takes some patience, knowledge of the zone and a bit of luck to pull off full rewards every run. Don't be discouraged if your rewards are reduced your first few (or so) runs--this is where the old adage of "practice makes perfect" rings true.

Being Spotted

There are two main ways you'll end up being spotted in the keep: by getting into a Kromzek's aggro range and by getting too close or touching any weapon rack.

The weapon racks are likely to be the bane of most people. You can walk near them, but within a certain radius (and definitely if you touch them with your body) you'll trigger a trap that will alert the nearest Kromzek and cause you to instantly be spotted. This is especially difficult during the mission Let Sleeping Kromzek Lie. There are weapon racks behind each bed, and you must walk behind the beds to reach the next one. Take your time and slow down a bit going around any weapon rack you see!

Getting into a Kromzek's aggro range is a pretty obvious one. Any aggressive Kromzek, whether it be the Vigilis guards or the barkeep/armorer can spot you if you aggro them. Watch pathing and figure out ways to get your updates whenever you can sneak in, even if it means waiting a while for a wanderer to path away.

Non-aggressive mobs (the named ones are this way until the final quest step) can also spot you. If you walk close enough to them they will teleport you to the entrance of the zone and it will count as being spotted.

Unauthorized Kromzek

Unauthorized Kromzek are considered to be any Kromzek non-essential to the mission. A normal reaction if you are spotted in the zone would probably be to turn around and kill the mob attacking you. Don't do this! Run to lose aggro (at worst, you'll lose it it halfway across the entrance's ice bridge) or use a method of feign death (ability or tinkered item).

The final step of the missions calls for you to kill named mobs. This is always the Commander and a random selection of any of the other four officers. The quest text actually states that "any other officers are now authorized for assassination", but it may be easier to kill the two you need, get the quest reward then just wipe out the rest for fun/AA/exp. You are still not permitted to kill the other zone mobs while on this final quest step.

Killing an unauthorized Kromzek during a mission will immediately lose you the 50g reward.

Abandoning Missions

The short version of this section is: don't abandon your missions!!!!

If you are spotted and/or kill an unauthorized Kromzek during a mission, abandoning the quest does not change that fact for the day. Instead, it may make the mission almost or completely impossible to complete if you had partial updates from before, as the zone will not reset itself. It's just not worth abandoning the mission, simply finish out the zone and get whatever rewards you're still entitled to. At the least you will always receive one Primal Velium Shard.

Distractions

While performing your espionage you may be required to provide some distractions during your mission. The quest Treasure of the Kromzek absolutely relies on distractions from the very first part and Spies Among Them requires one distraction during it.

There are three total distractions that can be performed in this zone: knocking a weapon over, exploding a keg of coldain spirits and blowing on a warning horn. If you are not yet familiar with this zone we strongly suggest looking over our zone layout and map section.

We will go over the distractions as if you are running the Treasure of the Kromzek mission:

Obtaining the Keg of Coldain Spirits

We strongly suggest doing this part first as the next distraction will add two additional wandering mobs to the Brew House.

Get to the back hall connecting the Storeroom and the Brew House. While the wanderer is heading toward the bar, hug the wall and run first west, then south. You should now be in the southwest corner.

Walk east along the ledge of the wall and just beyond the keg there will be 3 kegs of coldain spirits. You can pick up the front keg, which we safely grabbed at -682, 120, 580 .

The keg is an object you move around, as if it were a house item. Go back the way you crossed the Brew House to the back hallway and set it down in there for now.

Knocking a Weapon Over

You're in that back hall by the Brew House still, right? Good. The weapon rack in question is just south of this hallway.

When the wanderer is over by the entryway, run in front of the rack (but not too close to the barkeep) and click a green sparkle at -709, 118, 497 .

RUN BACK TO THE HALLWAY QUICKLY!! The two Vigilis that were guarding the Weapons Room will rush inside the Brew House and remain there as wanderers. The Weapons Room will now be safe to reach when you are ready to head there.

Exploding the Keg of Coldain Spirits

Grab your keg of coldain spirits that you should have placed in the back hallway and go back out to the Grand Hall through the Storeroom. Straight across the hall is the Armory. Head in with your spirits, but look around the corner for the wanderer before walking in as he walks right into the entryway.

Hug the wall and head north (do NOT 'touch' the weapon rack you have to pass by here!), then at the corner run about halfway up the wall to the west. If you look south you should see a pan of burning coals with a green outline of a keg above it.

Go to the pan ( -466, 118, 298 ) and place the keg on the ground near it. RUN BACK NORTH TO THE WALL QUICKLY!!

The keg explodes, killing the armorer (and you, if you failed to move out of the way). This lures in the two Vigilis that were guarding the front of the Trophy Room and they will remain in the Armory as wanderers. The Trophy Room will now be safe to reach.

Blowing the Advanced Warning Horn

Inside the Trophy Room you can click on a horn at -460, 119, 402 to receive an Advance Warning Horn in your inventory. This distraction is short term, so don't use it until you are ready.

When you use this horn the giants in front of the War Room will run down either side of the Grand Hall and out to the top of the entrance stairs. The safest bet will be to use it while near the back of the Trophy or Weapons Room. Unlike the previous two distractions, the giants will realize they were duped and go back to their post, so be ready to be fast.

Use the horn and wait until you see the giants move out of aggro range, then head immediately for the War Room.

Do what you need to do in the War Room and get out as quickly as you can.

If the giants are heading back to their post they'll say "Must have been a false alarm...". At that point you can re-blow on the horn and they usually will run back out, but if you do this too many times they could be stuck running up and down the Grand Hall for a while.

That's all of the zone distractions! It may sound like a lot, but after you've done them a couple of times they're like second nature.